As Africa observes the Day of the African Child on Tuesday, the UN Millennium Campaign is voicing concern over the unending plight of African children.

The Day is honoured in memory of thousands of black school children who were maimed and killed in 1976 Soweto uprising, as they took to the streets to protest the inferior quality of their education and to demand their right to be taught in their own language.

To honour the memory of those killed and to meet the Millennium Development Goals relating to the welfare and safety of African children, the UN Millennium Campaign calls on African states, civil society organizations and the private sector to tackle child and maternal mortality, school dropout, gender inequality in Universal Primary Education (UPE) and poor quality standards of UPE.

The Campaign's Communications Coordinator and Acting Deputy Director for Africa, Sylvia Mwichuli says as many as 50,000 African children under the age of five years will be losing their lives as a result of preventable or curable diseases.